Sienna’s Esoteric Pregnancy

Sienna Miller posed nude for artist Jonathan Yeo, and the work will be displayed at an exhibition in Berlin. Vogue UK has the portrait: it is stunning.

Mother Sienna has been quiet, really. For all her mid-20s attention-seeking behavior and personal drama, Sienna is not using motherhood as a means to promote herself. Call me crazy, but this portrait is not a pimp.

And yet…

She’s still an actress who craves attention, and this is much more palatable to her artistic sensibilities than say, a PEOPLE photoshoot. It’s not the mommyhood whitewash.

In the catalogue for his upcoming show, Yeo wrote:

“It is a tribute to (Sienna’s) courage and self-confidence that she agreed to sit for this. I can think of many figures whose public currency in part revolves around their appearance who would prefer to hide themselves away for nine months."

Um, clearly Yeo doesn’t know many pregnant women. And he most certainly doesn’t know celebrity pregnancy. There was a time when it was damaging for a woman’s career. These days, it can become a career in itself.

I suspect many moms will hate this, preferring the maternity shots where the dad is standing behind or below holding the belly oh so gently, or maybe some tasteful lingerie shots with gentle and warm lighting.

When we see celebrity maternity shots, it’s typically arm over boobs and airbrushed to eternity (Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears), or wearing one piece of clothing (Christina Aguilera), just boots (Miranda Kerr), or maybe a set-up bikini shot (Megan Fox).

And this is what woman are replicating and posting on their Facebook pages. (Mom sidebar: People do not want to see these shots, I promise you, save for your partner and the photographer who charged you hundreds of dollars. Yes you are glowing and your boobs are huge and you have the miracle of life inside you etc. but John from accounting probably doesn’t need to see that. Save it for the inner circle. Better yet the inner, inner circle.)

Sienna? Here? This is miles from that aesthetic.

Sienna’s portrait won’t be reproduced in the tabloids (full female nudity and too arty); it’s too esoteric, it’s too natural. Sienna has pubic hair! And her skin has folds and wrinkles. Her boobs aren’t cement. Don’t get me wrong, she looks beautiful …but she also looks REAL. Why have we gotten so used to those two things being mutually exclusive?

And how dangerous is it that we’ve started to apply the airbrushed standard of beauty to pregnancy?